The DOGgone Truth. . . Do you ever wonder what people are saying about you? I mean your close friends. Are they always 100% truthful? You’d like to think so. Personally, I can’t be around people or call anyone a true friend if I don’t think they are. But...

I can honestly say this has NEVER happened to me in my entire driving career which has spanned . . . .achhum, a few decades. I was always taught to fill the tank when it gets to half a tank (thanks dad). But yesterday as I was tooling around town...

“Oh My God he’s so cute”- “Look Madge it’s a Seeing Eye Dog”- Those are just some of the things I hear as I walk thru a public place with my Service Dog Milo. It’s been quite an education getting used to having him with me. And some of the things I hear and see people do would fill up a book I’m sure. I have to say 85% of the time we get nothing but kindness from the public, but it saddens me when the other 15% don’t behave well. So from a handler of a Service Dog I thought I would try to educate the public a little. Not all Service Dogs are “Seeing Eye Dogs”. Service dogs are individually trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities. They come in many shapes and sizes and can be trained for many different purposes. They can...

Remember the last time your energetic doggie stared at you, just begging for some Frisbee action? It was about 5 minutes ago right! Bet you couldn’t ignore those pleading eyes, so instead of vegging on the couch, you got up and played a tug-o-war with your best bud. No doubt,...

This delicious face, is Milo. 8 weeks old- March 4th 2012 (ok i’m really late in starting the posts). . . but i was so over joyed and busy there was just no time. So let me try and catch up. I had thought about Milo for years-...

I’m watching the rescue of the miners, well, I was but it’s hard to watch. For the past two months when I think about them trapped underground like that I find that i can’t breath. My sister reminds me that i’m not trapped down there, but I feel for these...

Posted by unwrapping panic at 1/27/2012 8:49 AM | Add Comment Walk thru the Panic- that’s what the “experts” say you have to do to overcome the attacks. Ten years ago when someone told me to do that, I couldn’t even wrap my head around that thought. Today, as i was in one of my favorite stores- (no not in a mall- still trying to concur those) i could feel my palpitations starting, as i stood on line to pay for a pair of jeans i needed. My first instinct was of course to run- leave- get out. But of course all the hard work I’ve gone thru with therapy would tell me to stay and “walk thru the fear” so i stayed in line. I hated it. I could have dumped the jeans in a minute, but I had to stay there as sweat was pouring down my face...

The DOGgone Truth

The DOGgone Truth. . .

Do you ever wonder what people are saying about you? I mean your close friends. Are they always 100% truthful? You’d like to think so. Personally, I can’t be around people or call anyone a true friend if I don’t think they are. But today, I got a shocking dose of truthful that I appreciated but has hurt me to my core. And I just don’t know how to feel about it.

This close friend has seen up close my struggle with Panic Disorder. She has it herself. She was the lead in a support group for years so she “gets it”. She watched me for 12 years struggle to leave my house. She watched me fight with everything I had. She watched as I embarked (pun intended) on getting and training my Service Dog. She has seen the transformation in me as I work with him. She knows the years of training we have gone through to get to a point where I am getting more comfortable being normal. Yet today, while talking about going out to do some shopping in a Mall- a place she knows I have severe trouble with, instead of me saying no- I said Ok I’ll take Milo with me. And her response threw me off my center. She said “ Do you really need Milo if you have me? “ And I paused in silence. Then replied, “Yes, why do you have a problem with that?” to which she said “ I’d rather not walk around and go to lunch with a dog”. Which she proceeded with.. . is that hateful?” I said “yes actually- but you go enjoy and I’ll pass on going today” with all the kindness I had in me and I meant it.

But when we hung up I fought back tears, anger, fury and hurt.

Now a lot of things are going thru my head. I appreciate the fact that she was honest. It probably was hard for her to say that to me. And does she have to like my having a service dog and go along with it? If I had to use a wheelchair would it be ok for her to say I don’t want to go with you while you are in that chair? Now how do I handle our friendship? And that is what’s rocking my center the most. Do you stay friends with someone who doesn’t . . .is it respect? or accept perhaps you in your entirety?

Here I was pushing my comfort zone going to try to concur the mall as I have been training to do for quite some time so I could enjoy the mall with friends. Yet my friend didn’t want to be a part of it with my service animal.

I have to accept her for what she is – right? I mean that is what friends do? But so, I can now only spend time with her as long as I don’t have my dog? It doesn’t work like that for me. Panic doesn’t pick and choose when it comes and when it goes for me. I have spontaneous panic attacks, so they could come at any time. And add in a claustrophobic trapped environment and it’s def con 12 for me. That is why precisely I ventured into having a service animal to help me. I used to spend hours and days in malls before the panic attacks started. Most of my life spent having fun shopping in malls. From shopping mall to shopping mall with no worries. Now just the thought of going into one can send me into a very uncomfortable state (I’ll leave the details out). So if Milo now knows how to help me get past that, and I can somewhat comfortably venture out into the shopping maze- then the people who love me and are in my closest of circles should embrace that – support it and encourage it- right?
But I feel like I had the power to say, ok if that doesn’t work for you then I am not comfortable going today without Milo so I will pass. So, as she has the right to not want to go with me and my service dog- I have the right to not go at all. But isn’t that all so sad?

What do you think? What would you do? I would like to have some productive conversation about this from both people with service dogs and disabilities and their friends and family. Share your thoughtful ideas.

What do you think?

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About the Editor

I’m not a doctor, let’s just get that out of the way. . .and I don’t play one on TV, but I can say that I am an unexpected expert on Panic Disorder, as I have been dealing with it for the past 10+ years It is now my passion and goal to have a place. . where people with REAL anxiety disorder can come and learn, chat and walk away with a feeling of not being alone, and perhaps even getting some real help solutions. If you would like to reach the editor email editor@unwrappingpanic.com